The beautiful Roseate Tern is one of Europe's rarest and most threatened seabirds. The largest European colony is on tiny Rockabill Island, off the coast of Skerries in north Co. Dublin. For the past 29 years BirdWatch Ireland has, through its work on the island, brought this species back from the brink.

In recognition of this hard work we have been nominated for a prestigeous Natura 2000 Award . . . but we need you to vote for us to win. It will honestly take you less than 10 seconds, and every vote makes a difference.

NEWS

BirdWatch Ireland is concerned about recent figures issued by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) which reveal that there was a further decline in Corncrake numbers recorded during the 2017 breeding season. The population of these highly threatened birds has declined for the third year in a row and is now down to 140 pairs from a peak of 230 in 2014.

Given that this is the third year in a row in which the population has declined, both nationally and in Co. Donegal, which is one of the key strongholds for this highly threatened species, there is definitely cause for concern.

Overfishing and climate change are pushing seabirds closer to extinction, according to the latest update on the conservation status of the world’s birds by BirdLife International for the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

The updated global list makes for grim reading, but of particular concern here in Ireland is the plight of the KittiwakeRissa tridactyla, a small cliff-nesting species of gull named for its distinctive "kitt-i-wake" call. Ireland is home to significant numbers of this species, which breeds at colonies around the Irish coast and which is now considered to be globally threatened.

BirdWatch Ireland is extremely concerned about the deaths of at least 15 migratory Whooper Swans in Co. Donegal. Their carcasses were discovered lying under electricity lines close to the village of Carrigans in the north-east of the county, close to the border with Northern Ireland. The birds collided with the wires in flight and were electrocuted. A high proportion of the swans that were killed were juvenile birds, just a few months old. It appears that the deaths were the result of multiple separate collisions with the electricity wires over a period of several weeks.

The BirdLife Partnership has published The Killing 2.0, A View to a Kill. Led by BirdLife International with input from experts from the region, including BirdWatch Ireland, this report exposes the scale and scope of the illegal killing of birds across critical regions. It is estimated that 0.4 - 2.1 million individual birds per year may be killed illegally in Northern and Central Europe and the Caucasus region – mainly for sport or ‘pest’ control. The report highlights that a more robust system of monitoring is required in Ireland to accurately tackle illegal killing of birds here.

We condemn the illegal fires which have destroyed vast swathes of habitat, decimated wildlife and, most recently and tragically, a family home. Thousands of hectares of mountain, hill, bog and forest habitat have been destroyed already this year, incinerating the wildlife that cannot escape fast enough, including helpless chicks in their nests, or animals which find themselves caught between flames and fences. These damaging fires happen every year and little is being done to prevent them. From 2010 to 2015, the cost to the exchequer of tackling over 5,889 gorse, forest and bog fires in ten counties amounted to over €6 million.

Over 140 organisations from all over Europe, including BirdWatch Ireland – representing consumers and the food sector, and those working to promote environmental protection, health, and animal welfare – have joined a call for reform of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)

The organisations have responded to an appeal by 'Living Land' – a broad campaign which recognises that the EU’s agriculture policy is devastating to both our climate and our environment, wiping out wildlife, harming public health, and is failing small- and medium-sized farmers as well as rural communities.

BirdWatch Ireland is thrilled that our EU nature laws have been saved, following an epic two-year campaign by conservation groups. EU President Jean-Claude Juncker and his Commission have confirmed that the EU’s flagship nature laws – the Birds and Habitats Directives – will remain in place and will neither be rewritten nor weakened, as had been initially proposed, ending two years of uncertainty over the laws’ future. The Commission has also called for a plan to better implement and enforce these laws.

This is a win for the record half a million people, including 8,000 people from Ireland, who called on the Commission to save and enforce these laws as part of the Europe-wide #NatureAlert campaign.

BirdWatch Ireland would like to raise its serious concerns in relation to a highly misleading and misinformed article featured on the front page of last week’s edition of the Tipperary Star, which makes outlandish claims that Buzzards, a bird of prey, have been “targeting” terriers in the county.

Such misinformation and negative sentiment towards birds of prey is unfortunately nothing new. The particularly sensationalist piece in the Tipperary Star warns owners of pet dogs and cats to be on high alert from “giant Buzzards” which are “causing major problems in the mid-Tipperary area”. This article has succeeded in attracting significant attention for all the wrong reasons. There are far-reaching consequences from fostering such misguided fear of birds of prey, which threaten to drag Ireland back into a darker past.

A task force of key stakeholders is to be set up immediately to protect the Curlew, one of Ireland's most threatened breeding bird species. This was one of the main actions which arose out of the recent Curlew in Crisis workshop.

The workshop brought together almost 100 scientists and conservationists to discuss the crisis facing breeding Curlew in Ireland.Results from a survey funded by NPWS have shown that just 130 breeding pairs remain in the Republic of Ireland and that the species is facing extinction here within the next 10 years if emergency action is not taken.

BirdWatch Ireland would like to remind the public that hedge-cutting is NOT permitted between 1st March and 31st August inclusive, except in the case of any of the derogations permitted under the Wildlife Acts 1976-2010 applying.